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Top Five Tuesday: Texas’ five toughest football games of 2015

Those of you who have followed the Nuggets blog over the years know how much I enjoy lists, so I’m giving you a weekly fix starting today.

Welcome to Top Five Tuesday, my weekly look at the best of the best of sports and other things that come to mind when I’m typing. Your comments are most welcome because that’s the beauty of lists: the debates that follow.

FYI, the Top Five reserves the right to morph into the Worst Five on any given week, depending on my mood.
So here goes.
Our inaugural entry: Texas’ five toughest football games on the 2015 schedule. In other words, which team is Charlie Strong most worried about? Besides, his own, of course.

Before we get to the heavy lifting, here’s a look at the schedule in its entirety, courtesy of the University Coop.

Now the list.

1. AT TCU

Ask anyone in Fort Worth (and a certain Statesman columnist you enjoy reading from time to time) and most will say the Horned Frogs were jobbed by the NCAA playoff committee that had them ranked third in the next-to-last rankings before dropping them to sixth in the one that counted.
The Frogs went 12-1 last season will enter 2015 with a huge chip on their shoulder, which plays right into the wheelhouse of coach Gary Patterson who doesn’t mind employing an us-against-the-world mentality when it comes to his team. And what a talented team it will be.

QB Trevone Boykin accounted for over 4,900 yards and 46 touchdowns and is a serious Heisman candidate while the defense will still be solid despite the losses of leaders Paul Dawson and Chris Hackett. Texas hasn’t forgotten that embarrassing 48-10 beatdown applied by the Frogs on Thanksgiving Night and will be sorely tested against a national title contender.

2. AT BAYLOR

The regular season will end with Texas’ first appearance Waco’s swanky McLane Stadium. You don’t need former Texas coach Mack Brown to tell you the Bears have it rolling under Art Briles with that 40-12 record over the last four seasons and enter the year with back-to-back Big 12 titles. Seth Russell is expected to step in for Bryce Petty for an electric offense that also lost wideout Antwan Goodley.

Enjoyed watching Baylor practice and catching up with Art. He has it rolling. Looks like the Bears will be good again http://t.co/5ylFwQO470— Mack Brown (@ESPN_CoachMack) March 01, 2015

The Bears, as usual, will fatten up on weak non-conference competition (SMU, Lamar, and Rice) but none of that will matter by this date. If you’re Texas, the last thing you will need is for a bowl opportunity to come down to having to win in Waco. For his sake, Charlie Strong had better be sitting on seven or eight wins by tihings, or else his seat could get pretty warm at the end of his second season.

3. AT NOTRE DAME

This isn’t as much about the opponent as it about the Longhorns problems at quarterback compounded by playing at South Bend in the season opener.

The chance exists that Strong’s crew will roll into South Bend with a starting quarterback who has never played a down on college football. Jerrod Heard could supplant Tyrone Swoopes as the starter as the Horns open the season in one of the most hallowed football venues in the history of the game. Talk about pressure.

As for the Irish, they finished 8-5 in 2014 and concluded the year with a 31-28 win over LSU in the Music City Bowl. One positive for Texas: new defensive line coach Brick Haley was the defensive coordinator of that LSU team and will have plenty of new ideas on how to stop the Irish attack after not getting it done in his final game with Les Miles.

4. OKLAHOMA

It’s a rivalry game. Shoot, it’s the rivalry game. I’ve said this before: the Big 12 isn’t taken as serious when the two biggest dogs on the block (Texas and Oklahoma) aren’t barking the loudest. With all due respect to TCU and Baylor, the Sooners and Longhorns can really help the conference’s national reputation by putting a better product on the field in 2015.

After going 8-5, Bob Stoops has seen better days in Norman. The end of last season was all about questions regarding his viability with the program moving forward. Despite all of his success in this conference, Stoops is in a position similar to that of Mack Brown in his last couple of seasons in Austin: his best days could be behind him and now he’s fighting to regain the foothold that made the Sooners perennial national title contenders back in the day. One should never underestimate the Visor but after a 48-14 loss to Baylor, home losses to TCU and Oklahoma State, and that embarrassing 40-6 bowl loss to Clemson, this could be a crossroads season for a great coach.

5. KANSAS STATE

The Wildcats finished at 9-4 last season and dominated the Longhorns 23-0 in Manhattan. Even when the Horns were competing for national titles, they had problems with the Wildcats and this year will be no different. Bill Snyder is one of the best coaches in college football history and never puts a bad product on the field. He’s never had a top-10 recruiting class but his teams are always solid, which earns them a spot on this list.

Gone are QB Jake Waters WR Tyler Lockett but one can never count out the Wildcats because of the old guy on the sideline. And if history is any indicator, the Horns will be up against it, even if the game is being played at DKR. K-State holds a 6-1 edge in the last seven games played in the series.

Next week: Football movies.

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